The new age of lobbying through online public engagement showed its effectiveness today as the Senate announced the postponement of next week’s vote on controversial anti-piracy legislation that led to unprecedented protests on the internet.

A recent book analyses the role of intellectual property protection in providing incentives for innovation and its impact on access to medicines by retracing the origins, content and interpretations of the World Trade Organization agreement on IP rights and trade. It concludes that the debate needs to be recast in order for all sides to benefit going forward.

The online protest yesterday against the bills in the United States Congress aimed at stopping internet piracy was the biggest yet, according to statistics being circulated by the protestors. More than 115,000 websites – including four of the top 10 in the US – and over 13 million internet users participated. There were 10 million petition signatures, 3 million emails sent, 100,000 phone calls, and some 3 million messages on Twitter.

A list of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the much-disputed anti-piracy legislation before the United States Congress has been published by CNET News. It also reported that some 4.5 million people signed the petition on Google during the blackout protest yesterday.

With European hopes for economic recovery pinned in large part on a more vibrant digital single market, 2012 will likely see a flurry of intellectual property-related legislative activities. Much of it centres on copyright, but the year may also bring movement on a unified European patent and changes in trademark law.

The United States Supreme Court today ruled on one of the top intellectual property legal cases expected this year. The case questioned whether the US Congress acted constitutionally when it restored copyright to millions of foreign works that had been in the public domain in the US. And it affirmed Congress’ actions, allowing the US to avoid questions of compliance with its international obligations.

The European Union Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science today introduced the US policy community to Horizon 2020, the large-scale new multi-year research and innovation funding programme the EU is preparing to undertake.

In an unprecedented action suggesting intellectual property rights have bumped up against an access threshold, thousands of websites have gone “dark” today in protest against two draft anti-piracy and counterfeiting bills in the US Congress that the protestors say would harm freedoms online. The protest includes major technology firms like Google, Mozilla, Wikipedia, Flickr, Reddit, Vimeo and WordPress.

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